Thomas sealy



@nit/i3- tstrs @stent .ffice THOMAS SEA-LY, 0E NEWARK, NEW JERSEY'. Letters Patent No. 'i2-,546, dated December 24, 1867.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING HATS,

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

- Be it known that I, TrIoMAs SEALY, of Newark, in the county of Essex, and 'State of New Jersey, have invented a-new and useful Process of Manufacturing Inlaid Hats; and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description and specification ofthe same. v

The object of my process is to make felted hats having patterns inlaid in the feltcd material of which the "body of the hat is composed, such pattern consisting of. material of a color different from that ofthe remainder of the body. l

v To this end, my said invention consists of the process of producingsuch hats by inserting yarns of a color different from that of the hat-body transversely through the hat-body previous to the completion of the felting, and then combining the material of such yarns with the remainder of the body by a felting-operation, after which the hat-body is finished without dyeing it. In practising my said invention, I prefer to form the bat for the hat-body in the ordinary mode of forming wool-hat bodies, by winding a eece of wool, vof the desired color, proceeding from a carding-machine, upon a. conical former, and to use for the` purpose the ordinary formingmachine, which forms two hat-bats at a time. The hat-bats so formed are hardened in the usual manner, and may then be partially felted or not, as deemed expedient. The bodies, in either condition, (hardened or partially felted,) are then inlaid with the pattern-yarn of the required color, by inserting thesame transversely through the material in the lines of the figure of tho pattern to be produced. The means of inlaying the yarn, which I prefer to use, is Grover and Bakcrs sewingniachine, the needle of which is supplied with the pattern-yarn. After the yarn is sewed into the hat-body, the latter is subjected to the ordinary felting-process used in the manufacture of wool hats, by which it is reduced to the finished size, and the bres of the pattern-yarn are combined with those of the body by felting. After the felting is completed, the hat-body is finished without dyeing it, and in the usual manner.

Hat-bodies manufactured by the labove process present a surface variegated by a pattern corresponding with the lines in which the pattern-yarns are inserted, and asthis insertion is transversely to the surface, the pattern remains the same, however the surface may be worked oi in the finishing-operations. yThe said process, therefore, permits the formationA of artistic patterns'in lendless variety upon the body, and as the patterns arc not distorted by subsequent finishing-operations, they appear well defined in the finished hat.

A hat made according to my invention, and ready for trimming, is represented in the accompanying drawingi Figure l being a top view of it, and

Figure 2 a transverse section of it.

The colored pattern-yarns are seen at a a; and, as in the operation of finishing, the portions of the yarns that extended over the surface have been worked off by sand-papering the body, the pattern appears to be formed of series of colored dots, arranged close to each other in lines.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The process of manufacturing an inlaid hat by inserting the colored pattern-yarn transversely through the hat-body of a different color, previous to the completion of the felting, and then feltin.;r thesaid body, and finishing it without dyeing it, substantially as hereinbeforc set forth.

In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my hand, this thirty-first day ol' July, A. D. 1867.

, THOMAS SEALY.

Witnesses: f'

'W. T. SEALY, R. W. WrLnn. 

